I got my first bicycle at about age 5. In those days bicycles came in one size, 26”. For a boy that meant a bar that made mounting and dismounting with short legs a potentially destructive enterprise. I think I started really riding about age 7….about the time I could reach the pedals and depart safely to the ground. All our bikes had one speed, were heavy, and we stopped with pedal brakes.

Enter Act 2. There is something in the air that says us vintage adults require regular doses of exercise and old fashioned bicycling is less stressful on the joints than jogging and even walking. So, to maintain health, and if you are overweight like me, it could potentially be my last chance to salvage my health. This makes bike riding an actual life or death choice. So let’s ride.

Well, first you need a bike. Fortunately , I had purchased my younger brother’s mountain bike when he tired of riding so I was set. Except today we seem to have multiple sizes of bikes and his mountain bike turned out to be a 16” bike. So, although it was barely used and looked aggressive with the shocks and knobby tires….it was really difficult to ride very far. And the sit bones don’t adapt well to the narrow, hard, cruel seat with no springs.

So getting a bike today involves research….lots and lots of research. It has been an intricate discovery thread traveling from the energetic mountain bike look toward the upright casual riding position to finally committing to the speedy road bike frame. And there is a lot to know. My original Schwinn had brakes associated with the pedals. Now the controls are on the handle bars. And then there is shifting. We no longer get a single gear. We get as many as 30 and have to manage where the chain goes by negotiating a wide range of shift options. This will take some learning. It seems every bike I rode had adopted a different standard. Some shifted by twisting the grips, some had levers. Mine has levers inside of levers and indicators.The final bike I settled on is called an “allez” which means fast in the French language, although no one watching me awkwardly mounting or dismounting could ever guess.